TOPICS OF THE DAY.

Evening Post, Volume LXXV, Issue 09, 11 January 1908, Page 4

TOPICS OF THE DAY.

To-day's financial cable again reveals the open market in a Cheaper Mark Tapley . spirit. Money— Despite the Bank of Dearer Wool. England sticking to its guns with its six per cent, .rate, tho optimistic outsiders have mads a further cut, and now quote £4 15s per cent, for best bills. /It is scarcely possible for the big Thread-needle-street Institution to postpone much longer a return to normal rates, and in a week or two we may hear of a four per cent. rate. The proportion of the Bank's reserve to liabilities has risen to 48.15 per cent., a factor of great strength. The easier financial conditions ruling and the brighter outlook should navo a beneficial effect on the Wellington sales which take placo on 17th in^t. The wool market is rapidly improving in tone ; of this tho big sale at Christchuvcb last Wednesday gives ample assurance. For instance, cross-biieds, which, at tho November and December auctions were n drug in the market, on this occasion found eager purchasers at Id to Ltd advance on prices obtainable- at the earlier sales. Half nnd three-quarter-bred wool, foo, shared in the improvement, and waa keenly competed . for x& prices equal to 3d to Id above the December rates. Tho dullness so much in evidence durjng , the closing months of last year has at length given place to a briskness and, keen desire to buy wool. No doub'i those Bradford makers who, by soiling tops forward, have managed to depress quotations, are now anxious to cover. , This fact will also serve- to strengthen tho market. While some debaters are insisting on a "right to work," a The Right man named Harry Brierto ly is establishing, his "Loaf." claim to a "right to loaf." A few years ago he decided that work was made for slaves, and was beneath the dignity of man. Therefore, when a sentence of hard labour is passed upon him, he sjmply refuses to handle the pick or the heavy hammer. The Government nourishes him for a time, turns him adrift, and back he conies. There are many Harry Brierly? in New Zealand, and their number will tend to increase until a penal farm is established, There is a way of making a man work without recourse to brutality. If Harry Brierly had his diet cut down to tho minimum required for tho healthful' sustenance of his body, and if tho titbits were made as unpalatable as possible, he mi-ght be tempted to change his ideas. If hej failed to surrender under this rigorous system of dieting, thero is a threat of a frequent cold bath. Persons like Harry Brierly are not fond of cold haths ; it is said that they prefer the birch. For the State to suffer a man to do no work in ite institutions is a lamentablo confession of weakness. * H is an incitement for the very tired to become more and more tired. The remedy, as we havo repeatedly stated, is very simple. Over in Adelaide this afternoon twenty thousand spectators aro The Cricket watching the cricket on the match of Australia Pavement, against England — testing ' for the third time in this series of games in which country reside (as far as can be ascertained) the more skilful sportsmen, less subject to that failure of nervous control which begins with "rattle" and ends with "funk." Elsewhere than in Adelaide ahundred thousand spectators are risking stiff muscles by directing their upward gaze at newspaper nbtico-boards. It is apparent that more people know cricket than ever cricket knew. Twentytwo play cricket ; the remainder crick it in the neck. They have much pseudoscience, these cricketers on the pavement ; but it is not this which sustains them. They are happy in a common emotion ; they share tho beatitude of the crowd. Their strained existence is another proof of the brotherhood Of humanity — and the dearth of excitement. Besides, there is chaim in euspense. Who knows what a minute may bring foith on tho notice-hoard? Who knows what the notice-board won't bring forth after he has waited two .hours? So he waits, supported by the sentiment of comradeship. Women, pass along bent upon their puny affairs : they aro not gregarious ; they cultivate the speculative spirit only when thero is something concrete at stake, and preferably when there ia no risk attachod to the stake. Superior man pauses, stands, and is held by the magnet of names on a board. We hopa that this afternoon there will bo many names, with small figures opposite ; for we, too, aro Southerners, and the South is the eternal antipodes ot tho North. And England is "in."' It is something more than mere deitire for euphemism that hue A Nation's led to quarrels being Guests. spoken of as nn'sundcr•standings. Tho gravest disputes between individuals, factions, or peoples have their root oftentimes in ignorance of the circumstances of the other party or inability to comprehend i-is $ml of x_bw a Jr g_r gjjs lsjid^ ibg .

history of long-past Maori wars, extending over nearly a generation, is mainly a record of misunderstandings — stupid enough, too, somo of them seem now — on one side or both. "Put yourself in his place" 13 tho title of one of the late Oharles Reade's most telling stories, and unless this advice is taken no sound judgment can be oxpected. A century ago, schoolboys on both sides of the Straits of Dover, among other lessons in "patriotism," were instructed to repard Oach other as "natural enemies." To-day, with widened knowledge, there is between F-rauce and Britain a" cordial "understanding." Mutual suspicion, founded on ignorance, has led to apprehensions of trouble between England and Germany ; but the interchange of courtesies between representative! deputations on both sules has gono far to improve the relations between the 'two lands. Municipal representatives and journalists have exchanged visits nnd compliments, and to-day wo learn by cable that a few months hence a hundred German pastors are to he welcomed by their British brethren, headed by the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Bishop of London. It is a good sign, and these visits, which cannot fail to widen 'men's thoughts and liberalise their views, could not happen at a more opportune time than the present, when breedbato writers and naval and military firebrands are seeking tp aroc&e a panic fear of possible enemies, and; to inflame national strife. Municipal politics tend to parochialism, and "national"' churches are often too busy at home to understand their sister churches abroad. There is a degrea of iuternationality ab.out philosophers and men of science, but they come little into contact with the mass of the people. On tho other hand) the Press and the Church come moTe or less into- touch with all, and in time of national misunderstanding nnd tension it is well that journalists and pastors alike should regard the posi- | tion with clear and unprejudiced vision, i In those islands of the blest, interestingly but unpoetically The called Cook, there is a Perfumed happy race. In the shade Isles. of the golden orange grove, "at once with glowing fruit and flowers crowned," rests him the Rarotongan, and he sings a lullaby in harmony with the music of tho bees, and exhales the fragrance of roses, and violets, and lavender to mingle with the perfumes of tropical bloom. It is prosaically alleged against the Cook Islanders that in 1906 he imbibed perfumed spirits to the tuno of £174, and therefore it is decreed that restrictipna are to be put upon the importation of scents. The official eye cannot appreciate the rosiness of the picture. Anyone who visited *he New Zealand Exhibition must remember the songs of the Rarotongans, the men and women who sat outside their whare, with eyes which even looked beyond the casual persons who stared at them. Their songs had just a tinge of sadness about them. They carried the listener away to happy lands, whero they dj) not hav(f ham and eggs three times a day, but the dew of the orange and attar de roses many times, and the sense of loss gave the hearer an indefinable emotion of sorrow. Those natives were people apart. They seemed to live in a world of thpir own, though they were thrust into the midst of a holiday populace. Th,ey are the aesthetics. They were dreaming of the days when they would return to their own groves, and again absorb the nectar yielded by earth's sweetest flowers. The Gazette, however, is blotting out their heavenly aspirations. By order of the Governor-in-Council the isles are to be less balmy. They ard increasing' in numbers and boldness. They are to be The seen, in twos and threes and ' Hatless uot, as Jast summer, as sgli.- - Ones, tary individuals—the hatless ones. The motormen on tho electric cars are to. 69010 exieiit responsible for the rapid growth of the movement, and the natters are beginning to bite their finger nails in nervous fear for the future. What is to become of tho whole art of chapellerie if this kind of thing goes on unchecked? Seriously the hatless ones have some reason on their side. Apart from the discomfort of an unventilated pate, and the bulky tope seems to be the only perfect covering in summer, there is the prospect of early ( baldness. In India and other parts, of [ the East white people go hatless after sundown. The hatless ones will need to take great caro of themselves, and if I they wish to run no risk of sunstroke, carry a white umbrella turned up with ! green. Sunstroke is not limited to tro- | pical latitudes. Tho danger lies more in the grey days of summer than iv the | full glare of the sun. When the sky j is overcast deadly shafts of heat strike j a man in his most vulnerable part — the nape of the neck. It is on grey days i that soldiers fall in the cricket fields in India ; it is in the sunless weather of midsummer that they fall out of the column, often once and for all to be victims ever afterwards of "a touch of the sun" if they escape death. The delights of an uncovered head are many, but in this weather common sense must be exercised.